The 21st century poses a formidable instructional challenge for preservice teachers and teacher educators alike. Dramatic changes in student demographics, exponential increases in the knowledge base to be mastered and applied, and dwindling levels of public and administrative support for education have placed educators in the unenviable position of trying to do more with less—and calling it better. In this paper, I highlight many of the instructional implications associated with teaching diverse groups of learners, describe briefly some promising educational practices for meeting the instructional needs of such students, and explore how those within departments, schools, and colleges of education might go about better preparing their future teachers for accommodating such learning differences.
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